Buckethead Replica Les paul from alpine white w/ gold hardware?

[cheezstik]

Does anyone here know how I can turn the les paul on the left to the one on the right? (without the red killswitches, that almost ruins the guitar for me. I might add a white killswitch or two in the same style in between the volume and tone if I have the money but I don't really think I would use a killswitch often enough for it to be worth it.)


I know what I would need, but I just need to know the procedure on how to do it and I've had no experience at all with building guitars and even though the guitar is cheap, it look really nice and I don't want to wreck it. I already know where to get white seymour duncan humbuckers but I just need to know how I can finish the headstock white and add a black or mirror gibson sticker to it. I've found vinyl white and mirror stickers on ebay, I just need to know how to finish it. One of my friends also with no experience refinished his ibanez in white and he said that he sanded it down and spray painted it white then put lacquer on it. Would I do the same? I've found some zinsser ceiling spray in white and I thought that would work. then do I just attach the sticker and put the lacquer on? Also I need to know how to finish the gold hardware white. I've researched it and it and some say to sand it down then finish but I'm also gonna refinish the metal part of the tuners where the strings get tied up to (i forgot what they were called lol) and I thought that would be too small to sand down without damaging so I thought I could use paint remover then refinish it? The only thing I need after that is a new pickup toggle to replace the black one and a chrome screw to replace the gold one around that, white knobs, maybe chrome strap locks if the gold ones are too noticeable in the finished product and of course to remove the black pickguard. The original guitar (vintage v100 aw arctic white) cost around $400 including shipping and these mods will cost about $310 all up including seymour duncans and maybe more if I get the strap locks or use more expensive methods that could be suggested. Prices in aud.

Can any experienced luthier confirm if this is the right methods or suggest new ones if this is the wrong one? It would be greatly appreciated and I will definitely have pictures of the finished product. Thanks in advance.
Also sorry for sounding like a 12 year old that just got his guitar for christmas, I'm just really inexperienced with guitar building and want my white/black/gold les paul to be only a white les paul.

[emoney]

Sounds like you've got a good plan, you just need to lay out the steps and have a go.
I'd want to know what the original guitar is finished in before I decided how to go about
changing it. For instance, I'm assuming it's a Poly finished guitar, so I'm not so sure I'd
finish the headstock in lacquer. As for the hardware, not sure how to get the original
finish off, but if I was going to try it, I think I'd sand off the "chrome", get it to bare
metal and then spray paint it in a gloss, white color. Maybe someone that's done this
before will weigh in with more info.

Good luck.

[cheezstik]

Originally Posted by emoney

Sounds like you've got a good plan, you just need to lay out the steps and have a go.
I'd want to know what the original guitar is finished in before I decided how to go about
changing it. For instance, I'm assuming it's a Poly finished guitar, so I'm not so sure I'd
finish the headstock in lacquer. As for the hardware, not sure how to get the original
finish off, but if I was going to try it, I think I'd sand off the "chrome", get it to bare
metal and then spray paint it in a gloss, white color. Maybe someone that's done this
before will weigh in with more info.

Good luck.

Thanks for the help. I thought lacquer and polyurethane were the same thing and nitro was the only other guitar polish >_> lol my mistake. So sanding down the chrome, even the smaller parts like the tuners and straps won't make them too small and unusable if I accidentally take off a tiny bit too much?

[emoney]

Not sure you'd sand that much off, you're just trying to remove the thin finish layer and
giving the remaing metal a rough edge so your paint has an easier time attaching.
Again, I've not done it, just sharing what I would do if the issue came up. You might
want to try the process on something that's useless that's laying around to make sure
it'll work.

Make sure you use the right paint too. I'd think a glossy "Rustoleum" type would be a thought.

[Reverend D]

Perhaps you could powder coat the pieces white? As far as the finish, I'm not sure on Poly, can a tinted (yellowish) clear be sprayed over the present coat to get the cream color? If not then it would have to be totally stripped and painted again. On the hardware though I did a lot of work on bikes (motorcycles) and powder coat really works well for that sort of thing. Without the red button's I think its a pretty sharp guitar! Good luck on it, I'm sure more knowledgeable people will chime in shortly.

Regards,

Don

[Phoenix59]

Incidentally, if you really want an accurate copy of the Buckethead Les Paul it'll take more than just refinishing a regular Les Paul -- his sigature model has an oversized body, an oversized head, and a 27" scale length (a standard Les Paul has a 24-3/4" scale). Basically the entire guitar is about 7-8% larger than normal.

[cheezstik]

Originally Posted by Phoenix59

Incidentally, if you really want an accurate copy of the Buckethead Les Paul it'll take more than just refinishing a regular Les Paul -- his sigature model has an oversized body, an oversized head, and a 27" scale length (a standard Les Paul has a 24-3/4" scale). Basically the entire guitar is about 7-8% larger than normal.

I don't really want an accurate buckethead les paul or a buckethead les paul at all really. He's insane at guitar though. I just want a full white guitar, I think it would look nice. And I think something like 25 3/4" would be perfect for me on a les paul but I'm not too sure cos I've played a stratocaster before and i think they have a scale like that and it felt so bad and cheap and the strings felt rock hard when I bent them. Maybe it's just because it was a strat but I'm not too sure.

[cheezstik]

Originally Posted by Reverend D

Perhaps you could powder coat the pieces white? As far as the finish, I'm not sure on Poly, can a tinted (yellowish) clear be sprayed over the present coat to get the cream color? If not then it would have to be totally stripped and painted again. On the hardware though I did a lot of work on bikes (motorcycles) and powder coat really works well for that sort of thing. Without the red button's I think its a pretty sharp guitar! Good luck on it, I'm sure more knowledgeable people will chime in shortly.

Regards,

Don

Thanks for the help, do you know how much a decent powder gun costs that would let me powder coat something like this? Cos i don't really have much money to blow on this, and I didn't think the body would need the refinishing, only the headstock. It'd be great if I could copy the body's finish onto the headstock, I really like that color. Anyone got any ideas? The body color is the same as gibons and epiphones les paul custom and studio in white.

[Reverend D]

You could get a gun fairly cheap (I'm talking total probably 100 bucks for the gun and then you need a toaster oven or something to cure it, Google Eastwood, they sell this stuff if you want to check it out), but if your in or close to a large city you could find someone to powder coat it way cheaper than that. It's cheaper than chroming for example. Its like a plastic coat, its sprayed on and then baked to harden it. Its a pretty tough coating, Harley uses it on a lot of parts, I think they're doing they're frames with it for example. That would be my suggestion if your going to try that route. It would definitely cop that look though. Just look local for a powder coater, or check with a few custom bike shops, they'll either do it or know where to get it done.

That said, you could also paint it with a poly paint and then clear coat it if you can get the surface maybe like sand blasted to give the paint some teeth to stick and not flake off. Just another thought, same deal find a sand blaster, and then paint even with rattle cans. Just an idea, I'm sure others as i said will chime in with maybe better idea's, but this is just one.

Good luck with the project, it seems pretty doable.

Regards,

Don

[mcmurray]

Powdercoating the hardware would be a very cheap job if you outsourced it. Most probably cheaper than doing it yourself. I had a complete motorcycle frame bead blasted and powdercoated for $100. Just look around.

Good luck with the build.

[D Rhinehart]

I second the powder coat ....inexpensive for sure!